9 APRIL - GOING HOME

It is a mission to get everyone out of bed and ready for our 4 o’clock pick up. We are at LAX airport before schedule and thank goodness for that, because the lines for the security checks are very long. Must say that we have been really impressed by the United Airways flight and service - from their Economy Plus Seats to the food served. There is no time for shopping and we board immediately. It is a 4 ½ hour flight plus a time change and we land in New York just after 2. We have to meet Uri to collect the rest of our luggage - he is running late, so we stroll around in the duty free shops - to whom everyone has access, but you can only shop if you have a boarding pass. Uri arrives and we tease him about coming with. He also has a field day, teasing one of the check-in girls busy with training. We quickly have lunch and then have to say goodbye to Uri - who ends up hanging around to see if the Strydom’s make it onto the plane! We have a bit of a problem with security - who screens one of our hand luggage bags three times and then asks us to open it to inspect - turns out it is Jana and Jaco’s wedding gift that had them baffled. We decide to take Uri’s advice and sleep as soon as possible, so that we can get straight into the SA time zone. This proves to be difficult with Luc who cannot get enough of the touch screen movies and games. It turns out to be an extremely uncomfortable night with the three of us trying to sleep on 4 seats - or shall I rather say, Luc sleeping on 3 and Callie and Monique trying to find a spot somewhere!!! We are all sad that our holiday is over and cannot believe that it has gone so fast.